Das Schloss

‘You can't play K. fat and on a full stomach.’ This is how the then Hollywood star Maximilian Schell slimmed down ten kilos for his favourite project. Pale and stubbly-bearded, in an old coat, battered trousers and clumsy shoes, Schell plays the surveyor K. in the snows of Styria, at the foot of Bertholdstein Castle. Nightmarish occurrences, sinister affairs and a dodgy bureaucracy block K.'s access to the castle, his employer and the community. Demoralised and exhausted, he finally lies down to die. ‘You were tireless in your zeal,’ the community leader praises him. Schell also understands the oppressive parable as a ‘psychogram of a longing - whether for redemption or for a beer is up for debate’. (Dieter Wenk) (red)